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Forum:Possible change to the navbox templates: opinions needed
For the past week or so, I've been going through the templates to clean them up and make sure that they are explained clearly for anyone who needs them. Ideally, I'd like the templates to be easy for everyone to use, even editors who aren't experienced. The navbox templates (such as Template:Levels) are something that people have to edit whenever a new game comes out or a new DLC is released, so they need to be easy to understand and easy to change. Currently, I'm not sure that is the case. I thought it might be easier for people to edit them if each major row of the navboxes was made from a subtemplate, instead of wikitable code. For a demonstration of how that would work, check out the examples and code on my test page. As you can see, using a template for each row within a navbox table would get rid of the need for people to understand wikitable syntax. But then again, it might make the code seem more complicated, not less. I'd like to know what other editors think about this, so if you have time, please answer the following questions: *'Do you think that editing the navboxes as they are now is too complicated?' *'In your opinion, would using templates for rows (like the code on my test page) make the navboxes simpler?' *'Do you have any ideas for making the navboxes easier to edit? If so, please explain.' ~'Gardimuer' [[User talk:Gardimuer|{ ʈalk }]] 11:18, March 30, 2012 (UTC) Responses (Please leave your answers here.) As a user who has created a few of the navbox templates here, I can say that at the start I was pretty confused. I'm fairly illiterate when it comes to the code on the wiki here, and so I mainly copy-pasted other navboxes to create new ones. I also don't know how to edit the navbox layout. However, when it comes to adding a new link (which is why most users edit the template) it's relatively easy to do. Even then, a tutorial might be needed (or, if it already exists, clearly indicated and accessible from the template pages) for users to get used to the finer details, such as the use of the non-breaking space and how to create a white dot. To answer your second question, the templates you added on your test page made things a lot clearer to me, and could definitely make editing easier for new users. Although with your page it's relatively easy to infer the role of each line of code, a tutorial that'd explain the role of each line could work wonders in making the navboxes easier to edit. In summary, your changes to the navbox templates have made them a great deal more accessible to the average editor. To complement this, you could expand your test page to include an explanation for each line of code, as well as tips on how to perform common edits to navboxes (non-breaking spaces, spacing, line breaks, white dots, and the like) which you could link to the templates. You've given a tremendous amount of effort to this already, and so if everone's okay with the tutorial idea I could help in expanding your test page. --Willbachbakal 00:43, March 31, 2012 (UTC) ::Thanks for the feedback. I do plan to expand the documentation for the navbox templates regardless of whether I go through with this change, so each navbox template page will include more information about how it works and how to use it. I've been giving a standard documentation format to all the template pages. You can see an example of what that looks like at Template:Charinfobox. ::Feel free to edit my test page to add tutorial info if you want, or you can create a draft on a test page of your own if you prefer. ~'Gardimuer' [[User talk:Gardimuer|{ ʈalk }]] 05:11, March 31, 2012 (UTC) :::It's been a week with no further feedback, so I'll go ahead and implement this. ~'Gardimuer' [[User talk:Gardimuer|{ ʈalk }]] 17:57, April 8, 2012 (UTC)